Lucy (Elfen Lied)
Kaede, more commonly known as Lucy or Nyu, is the main character, protagonist, and anti-hero/anti-villain of the Elfen Lied series. *''Warning: This series is not for the faint of heart. Read this page at your own peril.'' Background In the Kamakura province, a young girl named Kaede was found alone after being seemingly abandoned by her parents. While a local orphanage took her in, she faced discrimination due to the two horn-like appendages present on her head; the staff avoided interacting with her while the other children demanded that she leave and harassed her repeatedly to enforce this message. Kaede paid them no mind, and tried to comfort herself by taking care of a stray puppy that lived nearby. However, a group of bullies soon found them and went on to murder the dog in front of her eyes, triggering an inner darkness that had previously laid dormant until that point. In a matter of seconds, she lashed out and killed every one of them, all without lifting a finger. This was Kaede’s first awakening to her nature as a Diclonius, a newly evolved species “destined” to one day supplant humanity as the most dominant life form on Earth. As she fled the orphanage in her despair, she conversed with a voice within her DNA that represented her primal instincts. It convinced Kaede that she could not hope to possibly co-exist with humans and drove her to kill in order to forsake her humanity and make the world their own. For the next 5 years, she did just that by slaughtering various innocents to survive and unknowingly spread the Diclonius virus, until she was captured by the mysterious Diclonius Research Institute and detained in an offshore facility to be experimented on. After 3 years of captivity, Kaede - now referred to by the codename Lucy - attempted to escape captivity; while successful, she was rendered unconscious, causing her to develop a third personality named Nyu which represented whatever remained of her innocence. She was eventually found ashore by Kouta, a schoolboy who once was Kaede’s sole childhood friend, and was invited to live with him and his cousin Yuka. Since then, Lucy has remained dormant while she and Nyu attempted to peacefully coexist with her “friends”, often reemerging when confronted with other Diclonii or special forces soldiers hell-bent on recapturing her. Powers & Abilities * Vectors: Aside from their unusual colors and horns, the main defining feature of a Diclonius - at least, to those who can see or are aware of their presence - is their Vectors. These are invisible and intangible arms which sprout out of their backs, and are often used as their main source of self-defense and if need be, murder. Such a name actually has its basis in two different fields of science; biological vectors are organisms which spread diseases and viruses from one being to another, while vectors in physics are forces that have both magnitude and direction - both of these definitions apply to the ones possessed by the Diclonii to different extents. Vectors are extensions of a Diclonii’s body, and serve as extra limbs they can manipulate at will. They are invisible to non-Diclonii, although it is still possible to feel their presence and hear them on very rare occasions. On their own, they possess inhuman levels of strength and toughness, capable of cutting through or lifting almost anything, launching their main bodies far enough to mimic flight and acting as a shield to defend against explosions and other large area-of-effect attacks. They can also move fast enough to guard their main bodies against fast-moving projectiles and kill people before they realize they are already dead. Each Diclonii has a set amount of arms, as well as a range in which they can reach up to; in Lucy’s case, her Vectors over around the mid-10s mark with a originally 2 meter range. It is possible for a Diclonius to push past these limits by sprouting more arms and increase their size and range, but doing so can be risky and lethal; continuously overusing and pushing their Vectors will result in their body deteriorating and melting, eventually leading to their death. Lucy herself at her peak is able to create up to 28 vectors, in which an individual vector can reach the length of over 2,700 miles and a width of 51 miles. If she were to place all her vectors side by side, that means they can cover over 1,400 miles. In comparison, that’s longer than the United States and can cover over half of the country. ** Cellular Stitching: '''Lucy’s Vectors are unique in that they are capable of reconnecting and restoring damaged cells, allowing her to heal at a much faster rate than a normal human being would. Thus, in the event that her Vectors cannot defend her and she is hurt, she can just tie them back together to continue fighting. She can also use this ability on other people; the above example sees her reconnect Kouta’s damaged cells together after he suffers a near-fatal injury. Whether this power allows her to manipulate cells in ways other than reconnection is unknown, although this could theoretically allow her to attack opponents on a cellular level as well. ** '''Vector Intangibility: Vectors themselves are made of molecules, which can vibrate at variable speeds to perform different tasks. At lower speeds, the arms are rendered intangible, allowing them to move through most objects unimpeded. As the vibration increases, so do the Vectors’ ability to exert their power by slashing and lifting heavy materials or disrupting blood vessels, eventually capping off with fast-moving molecules that allow them to cause miniature explosions. These speeds can be changed on the fly, allowing Lucy for example to render her Vectors intangible, phase through a target and speed up to rip out vital internal organs. ** Barriers: In a situation where she is forced on the defensive, Lucy can create barriers around her body using the Vectors to wrap it up. Hence, oftentimes when she is shot at, the Vectors invisibility makes it look like projectiles - whether as small as handgun fire or even as large as missiles - just outright stop before they make contact with her body. While it should be theoretically possible to penetrate the Vectors’ defense with brute force, it is more likely that she can be damaged by abusing gaps within the Vectors to hit parts of her body. ** Diclonius Virus: The Vectors also contain a mysterious virus that spreads to any human male it comes into contact with; this is theorized to be the main reason why the Diclonii possess their Vectors - not as a weapon, but as a tool to ensure the spread of their species. When infected, their genetic code is rewritten such that any offspring they father will always be a Diclonius, regardless of whichever woman they end up impregnating. Lucy inherited this virus from the first true Diclonius: her mother. That being said, the virus itself is not fatal nor does it afflict infectees with any harmful side effects, so for the purposes of a fight to the death, it is essentially useless. Forms * '''Split Personalities: '''Due to the trauma that Kaede had experienced growing up, she had ended up developing multiple split personalities, each of which represent different parts of the larger fractured original she once had. ** '''Lucy: '''The first is that of Lucy, her primary personality, named as such by the scientists who had experimented on her. While she can appear morose and disinterested given her contempt for humanity, Lucy wants nothing more to be a part of the human world and be accepted by others, but is aware that her past actions and identity as a Diclonius will always hinder this goal of hers. She is often the one present when a fight breaks out, and possesses an unmatched sense of brutality while in combat. Despite her desire to kill, she refuses to do so in front of Kouta, the only one who had treated her as a true friend. ** '''Nyu: '''The second is Nyu, an innocent and carefree young girl who represents Kaede’s inner goodness and the type of person she would have likely been as a human. Named after the only sound she could make after being found by Kouta and Yuka, she initially had a childlike sense of naivitie that belied her physical appearance, but later matured more as she became the predominant personality. When she experiences great physical pain or feels threatened, Nyu makes way for Lucy, but if she herself must fight, she will not hesitate to use her Vectors to defend herself and those she cares about in spite of her reservations towards violence. ** '''DNA Voice: '''The last personality is referred to as the DNA Voice, representing Kaede’s primal instincts as a Diclonius. It is this persona that fuels Lucy’s penchant for killing, and unlike her counterparts and their own less twisted senses of morality, she believes that all of mankind need to perish for the Diclonius to stand dominant. Near the end of the manga, the DNA Voice overrides both Lucy and Nyu and takes over Kaede’s body in a last ditch attempt to wipe out humanity at the expense of their own well-being, and is directly responsible for performing many of Lucy’s most high-end feats at the time. Feats Strength *When she was younger she was strong enough to toss a man into the ceiling *Ripped off the secretary’s head with strength alone in the manga *Killed multiple children at once due to them killing her puppy *Able to slice off flesh like butter *Uprooted a tree and threw it as a projectile *Tossed a 75 ton giant rock at an enemy soldier *As a child, blew away multiple people's torsos and heads very casually *Destroyed most of a building as well as create a giant hole in the middle of the remaining part of the building *Destroyed a chopper with a single attack *Turned a human into a mangled pile of organs *Split a missile in half *Tore through steel as a kid *Tore Kouta's sister and father apart *Destroyed an island using her vectors *Sunk an island using her vectors *Destroyed multiple battleships *Caused a storm *Claims that she has the power to destroy the entire earth though she has never shown destroying the earth completely *Went on a rampage and destroys multiple people, helicopters and buildings *Destroyed multiple buildings at once Speed *Vectors are able to react and block gun fire *Evaded a bullet shot at her point blank *Catched a bullet before it destroys her heart *Blitzed a group of soldiers before their bullets reached her *Vectors are able to reach outer space in a few seconds *Obliterated a group of Diclonius before they could react *Casually reacted to and blocked a barrage of machine gun bullets *Stopped bullets in midair *Deflected a caliber 50 tungsten bullet designed specifically to deal with Diclonius' vectors Durability *Survived sniper round to the head *Lucy’s shields tanked a SLAM missile though it does injure her *Survived the explosion of the bombs that were implanted inside Mariko at point-blank range *Survived getting crushed by Annie's hand *As a child, caused and endured this large explosion that blew big holes through multiple floors of a building *Endured getting thrown through multiple metallic pillars *Took hits from Nana, another Diclonius *Took a hit from a massive spiked steel ball through her chest *Took a beating from Mariko *Survived Mariko's bomb Skill *Slaughtered ten armored guards and escape a facility *Effortlessly defeated the deadliest assassin in the military *Fought and defeated Nana who is another Diclonius *Defeated Mariko *Fought and Killed Bandou *Killed another Diclonius *Killed Anna, a being able to predict the future *As a child, slaughtered the kids who tortured a dog in front of her *Survived being homeless as a child by sneaking into houses, killing people, and stealing their food for 5 years. *Effortlessly defeated the deadliest assassin in the military *Caused a 9.2 earthquake *Threatened to kill every human on Earth with her Vectors by pushing her powers to their maximum output, at the cost of causing her body to degenerate fast. *Has a kill count which reached up to tens of thousands dead Weaknesses * '''Diclonius Limits: '''While she is a truly dangerous individual, Lucy’s Diclonius powers have limits, with the last of them being particularly fatal. If her horns are broken, or if her pineal gland is damaged enough, it will not only cause her to lose her Vectors, but forces her less-combative counterpart Nyu to re-emerge. Nyu herself can use the Vectors if she can and absolutely has to, but she lacks the violent tendencies and penchant for killing that Lucy has. Not only that, but without them, Lucy/Nyu would essentially be nothing more than a normal teenage girl, which makes her a lot more vulnerable than she would be with them. * '''Double-Edged Sword: '''Pushing her abilities to their maximum for an extended period of time will cause them to slowly eat away at her body and force it to melt. At the peak of Lucy’s power, her overuse of the Vectors to try and destroy all of humanity while attempting to save Kouta resulted in her being reduced to nothing more than a puddle with a head easily finished off by a single bullet from a handgun. In other words, Lucy’s true strength with the Vectors can only be shown when she tries to literally kill herself, past the point where her own healing factor cannot continue to support her. Category:Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Anime/Manga Characters Category:Chaotic Evil